|
|
|
 |
EPISODE
4, SCENE 3
Luanne wanted this to be a perfect night. It was Richard's party and she was with him. He'd been so sweet when they skied together last week. He sent flowers to her desk at the Avalanche on Monday, which outted them on the gossip mill, but Luanne didn't care. She loved romance and Richard excelled at it. His tabloid marriage to Shauna only seemed to add to his roguish notoriety, and if taking up with Starbuck made her a bit of a bad girl, Luanne decided some edge would do her good. She'd grown up in Telluride, an athletic tomboyish kid who always did the right thing, studied hard and missed out on a lot of mindless fun. Graduating at the top of her high school class, she headed for Bennington, partially because it was so damned far away from Colorado. There she reinvented herself, learned to drink, discovered how much she liked sex, and largely ignored her studies. Through a boyfriend she started writing pieces for the school paper, which led to a weekly column she called "Girl Problems". She was energetic and controversial. It turned her on to piss people off. She mattered. She'd found her voice. After Bennington was over, she impulsively booked herself into a Manhattan hotel and made the rounds of the magazines. Weeks later, it was a total shutout. Lonely as hell, eating alone in restaurants every night, out of step with city rhythm, she never felt more like a hick mountain girl. Needing a change, she decided to surprise her father on his birthday by showing up back home, and realized just how comfortable she was as a hick mountain girl. She let her New York dreams go, and went to work for the Avalanche. Now here she was on New Year's Eve among the town's glitterati, Starbuck's fragrant date, full of champagne and dreams of his midnight kiss that would last til morning. |
||||